Costa Rica: Central America’s green pin-up

Costa Rica: Central America’s green pin-up

ALAJUELA, Costa Rica: Costa Rica, which elects a new president today, is a small country thriving on ecotourism. Its neutrality, strong democracy and political stability have earned it the nickname of Central America’s Switzerland. Here are four facts about the country of more than five million people:

Beacon of peace

Independent since 1821, Costa Rica is considered a model of democracy in Central America. A short civil war in 1948 led to the abolition of the army and helped put in place the country’s political stability. In the 1980s, when several other Central American countries were mired in civil wars, neutral Costa Rica acted as peace broker, earning then-president Oscar Arias Sanchez the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987. It saw a political shift in 2014, when the two rightwing parties that had shared power since the 1960s-the PLN and PUSC-suffered an historic defeat as centrist Luis Guillermo Solis was elected president.

Outgoing president Carlos Alvarado is from the same party. On the international stage Costa Rica has fought for disarmament and for a total end to nuclear weapons and the strengthening of the non-proliferation regime. Over recent years it has seen an increase in organized crime, largely due to the drug trafficking that